Introduction

My name is Trevor and this is my guide for playing Kayle. Kayle is an underrated champion who actually can be played in several different ways effectively. She is a unique champion who is not specifically designed for one purpose, often confusing people on how to play her and build her well. In this guide I will discuss some effective ways to play and build her for a few roles so you may choose which way to play her, and if you have not played Kayle since her recent update I suggest giving her a shot. She's one of the cheapest champions to purchase so whats to lose? Hope you enjoy!

There are four ways discussed in this guide to play Kayle: three for Summoners Rift and one for Dominion. You may find the guide you want by clicking the above Kayle guides.

For Summoners Rift the first is a support Kayle guide, the second a jungle Kayle guide, and finally there is a solo top Kayle guide. For Dominion there is one dominion Kayle guide that may be found on the top right under "Dominion." For more information, or for the core build, please see the more detailed sections below labeled with the build your looking at.

Ability Explanation

Holy Fervor: // This shred the enemy armor and MR. It's good early on to get some early damage since your can essentially shred them to zero armor, but other than that not noticeable.

Reckoning (Q): // This is your damage dealing ability and slow. Always hit an enemy first with this to slow them, inflict damage, and increase your damage to them since Kayle may then do additional damage.

Divine Blessing (W): // This is your heal and speed buff. The heal is descent, but isn't worth getting AP for since the ratio is pretty low. However, this ability can also be used for chasing and escaping with the speed buff.

Righteous Fury (E): // This ability makes you a ranged character with splash damage. What more could you ask for?

Intervention (R): // Best ultimate ever! It makes any champion invulnerable for two to three seconds. Time this right on a focused champion to save them and make the enemy waste all they have on nothing.

Pros & Cons

SUPPORT Kayle PROS
Relatively good heal after level three
Has a speed buff and slow for AD carries
Best ultimate for AD carry EVER
Can survive a bit of a beating

TOP Kayle CONS
Mana hungry
Not very tanky for top, so heal required
Has long cooldowns
Little escape from ganks if over extended and underfed

DOMINION Kayle CONS
If you don't get top at first... your screwed
Heal barely worth it in dominion
Often has to go back and heal without Sanguine Blade
Is DEAD if you use your ultimate prematurely

Support Kayle

This is how I play Kayle most frequently since the last update. She now has a good heal, Divine Blessing, but can still dish out some early damage via Reckoning and auto attacking while using Righteous Fury. Just remember not to over use this combo early game, for it will drain your mana rapidly if used often.

For team fights remember you are not a tank or heavy damage dealer. Stay in the back casting Reckoning for a slow, healing your teammates with Divine Blessing, and popping your ultimate, Intervention, on someone about to die or saving it for when your AD carry is focused. Its okay to pop Righteous Fury and deal ranged attacks when you have the chance, but try not to KS in team fights. Its best to stay in between the front line and your AD carry because if they focus you instead of your AD carry it gives him or her a longer time to get an ace. By no means stick around to die though. Heal, to make sure your team takes some of the heal, then Flash out, run, and pop your ultimate on your AD carry if she or he comes under attack.

On a secondary note, you will find yourself often getting a kill early on instead of your AD carry. Though this is not preferred, it will happen often. Your power to finish enemies early game is pretty good, so don't feel too bad. Later on do not KS for any reason though unless there is no other way to kill the target.

Jungle Kayle

This is a fun way to jungle, though not many people will like you for doing so at first. However, Kayle is a very effective jungler surprisingly. I often find myself getting five or six successful ganks within the first fifteen minutes. START Cloth Armor and five Health Potions.

As jungle Kayle you MUST START at the mana golem or else you'll be mana deprived before clearing the jungle. With a leash on blue you may not even need to pop a health pot, but if you want to go for it. After, continue to wolves, then wraiths, then golems, using Divine Blessing for the speed buff and to heal you up since your can use it essentially for free with the blue buff. After, grab red and look for gank. If none, go back to wolves then wraiths and recall. You can solo dragon at around level nine or ten, but its usually not smart to solo it. If you do, make sure flash is up and go to the back of the dragon pit. Usually people will not see you when you do this and you can get dragon without anyone noticing even if they walk by.

Ganking with Kayle is all about teamwork. You have a speed buff, Divine Blessing, and a slow, Reckoning, at your disposal, so choose wisely who to use them on. A good early gank is to go to the enemy wraiths camp and Flash onto mid using Reckoning for the slow on mid, popping your Righteous Fury for the ranged attack, all while speeding up your mid with Divine Blessing. People don't suspect an enemy to pop up behind them when there tower is right there, but, if done successfully, you'll be right out of range from the tower.

Other than that just know invading is tough with Kayle, and if you are invaded call for help until level six. You can deal a lot of damage fast, but without the essence of surprise you die fast with Kayle before level six too. If you know exactly where their jungler is and he or she is on the other side of the map go ahead and steal what you can from their jungle. Be sure, while your there, to ward the mid inner tower brush or the blue golem brush. Also, if you have Smite up and are near mid go to their wraith camp and steal the blue wraith quickly.

For team fights you should be right behind your tank. You can be temporarily ranged with Righteous Fury, so you can sit back and fire your q's, Reckoning, while auto attacking and popping Intervention if your AD carry is focused or if another team member is close to death. However, with this build you can, and often should, take some of the damage so your squishier characters are not killed off too quickly. Be in front of your AD carry!

Solo Top Kayle

Kayle solo top is the way I play Kayle the least, but recently have been taking a strong liking to it. If you choose to play her solo top you will be a second AD carry. Now, most people will look at my build and say, "Trevor, if I'm an AD carry why do I have Zhonya's Hourglass?" Here is the reason before I explain what to do with Kayle in top lane: First off, it takes away from your attack standard build, but it doesn't affect reckoning at all and only improves your spells, but more importantly your team has two AD carries and the chances of one of you getting focused is high. Say they focus you. Pop zhonya's and they then choose to attack your other AD carry. You'll be out of zhonya's before they're dead and pop Intervention. If they first attack your AD carry use Intervention first and then when they focus you use zhonya's. I only suggest doing this if your AD carry is actually carrying and doing well. If your the one killing everyone just go straight attack speed and damage, but its fun if your a secondary AD. This will frustrate the hell out of the other team. Now, back to the guide.

START Boots of Speed and three Health Potions and take it from there. Remember to try not to use your spells, except righteous fury, until level four unless you need to or think you can get the kill since Kayle is mana deprived early on. Try to stay back and farm up. Harassing is always an option too, but make sure you get that farm!

For team fights you should be behind your tank and away from your AD caryy, constantly spamming Reckoning and using Righteous Fury for the range and splash. Stay away form your AD caryy so that they cannot focus the two of you and killing the two damage dealers becomes a hassle for the opposing team. Remember, when you have Zhonya's Hourglass use that instead of Intervention to save you. If they continue to focus on you then you may use you ultimate on yourself, but your other AD carry should get an ace by then.

Always leave enough mana to pop Intervention and try to save it until a you or your AD carry are focused, or to save a dying team member who can escape or get another kill.

Dominion Kayle

In dominion Kayle is one of the best in my mind. I always place first or second for my team and have the most kills because she can become a killing machine. START Prospector's Blade and Dagger. Head top making sure you hit the speed buff because you will be slow without Boots of Speed, and when you reach the top fight use Surge. At this point just watch people die. If you start taking heavy damage or want to heal a dying teammate use your summoners spell, Heal, for this will prolong your fight and probably get you another kill. Don't be afraid to die in this first battle, just do as much damage as possible so that your team can pick off the stragglers. You probably can't chase anyways since you don't have boots. After this build for attack and attack speed. With your ultimate, Intervention you should be able to prolong turret losses and get turret kills easily despite your small amount of life.

Make sure you do not go 1v2 because they'll hit and run unless your under your turret. You could potentially kill both if they stuck around, but if there any good the one you focus will run after a bit while the other enemy finishes you off. Stay under your towers and only attack a tower if someone more tanky goes in for the turret hits first. A more effective way in my mind is if one person charges in and starts capturing the tower, while you go in and slow with Reckoning and destroy the enemy before they are even able to interrupt the tower capture. The reason for this is your ultimate lasts two to three seconds and after this point you become a squishy for about a minute while Intervention is on cooldown... :(

Ability Sequence Order

SUPPORT

Ability Sequence

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

> > >

As a support your ultimate goal is to keep your AD carry safe and in lane, so Divine Blessing is important. However, I usually start one point with Reckoning for the slow in order to help my AD carry get away by slowing the other AD caryy, or get a kill by slowing the enemy AD carry.

JUNGLE

Ability Sequence

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

> > >

As a jungler you want to start with a point in Righteous Fury and max it first. This increases your clear time giving you AOE damage, as well as making ganks easier since you can act as a ranged champion. Second, take Divine Blessing to speed your way around the jungle and heal yourself, but max it last. Reckoning is more valuable to your ganks and fights after the initial point in Divine Blessing.

Viable Summoner Spells

Flash: This is a must have spell for summoners rift. You can hop over walls to initiate or evade, as well as get out of sticky situations where you may have to be slowed, stunned, or damaged.

Smite: This is a must have for junglers. Plain and simple. Use it often and to take buffs and to steal faster.

space

Heal: I take this as support Kayle for emergency heal on myself or AD carry if my carry did not take heal them self. Since Kayle's heal, Divine Blessing is quite costly at first this will ensure you can stay in lane. I always take this in Dominion so that I have additional life during a fight that I'm the focus of, since I will be dealing a high amount of damage.

Clairvoyance: This is the classic support summoner spell. It gives you great map control and as long as your AD carry has heal I take this.
heal.

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Ignite: Great for top lane because it adds that little extra damage to finish off your opponent as they run to safety under their tower. Also helps diminish any heals they may receive.

Surge: This spell is good for Dominion so that you can get some extra damage early on, as well as drastically increasing your attack speed. This benefits your killing ability and that splash with Righteous Fury is a nice compliment.

Masteries Explanation

SUPPORT

Masteries

1/5

3/1

4/1

1/1

1/5

3/1

3/5

1/5

4/1

2/5

3/5

3/1

1/

For support a 0/9/21 mastery tree is usually the most optimal. I go for this for the extra income, Greed , and starting gold, Wealth . Also the XP gain from Awareness is nice, but I do not take four counts in this because the starting gold is more important for Kayle so you may get another Mana Potion to heal your AD carry early on when your mana pool drains quickly.

JUNGLE

Masteries

2/5

2/1

4/1

4/5

1/1

1/1

3/1

3/1

1/

1/5

2/5

3/1

2/1

1/1

For jungling a 21/9/0 mastery tree is the way to go. Both Tough Skin and Bladed Armor will greatly help your jungle clear. Make sure to take the point in Summoner's Resolve so that every time you use Smite you can earn an easy, quick 10gold. As for the 21 points invested in offense this will make your ganks much more deadly and effective. I focus on the attack damage and speed more so than the ability power since Kayle's ability ratios are poor anyways.

SOLO TOP

Masteries

3/5

1/1

4/1

4/5

1/1

1/1

3/5

2/1

3/1

1/

1/5

3/1

3/5

For top I go 23/0/7. The 23 in offense is to make Kayle more of a threat throughout the game. I take the 7 points in utility so that I can sustain my mana pool, especially early game. Kayle needs the mana and mana regen from Expanded Mind and Meditation .

DOMINION

Masteries

1/5

3/5

4/1

4/5

4/1

1/1

1/1

3/5

1/5

3/1

3/1

1/

1/5

During Dominion I go 29/1/0. I plan on going all out attack, being the killing machine that Kayle can be. During the first fight people won't suspect this out of a Kayle and will likely focus someone first. Also, without Boots of Speed you won't be the first to arrive at the top tower and therefore can come in often after they started focusing another player. After level six, which is shortly after the first fight, you then have your ultimate, Intervention, to keep you alive and able to kill others. I take one point in defense, Summoner's Resolve , in order to increase the heal size of Heal to allow me to live slightly longer, which may end up winning me a fight.

Items Explanation

SUPPORT

: // Since Divine Blessing has a long cooldown this will help you be able to effectively heal your allies. To me this seems like the only viable way to go with support Kayle.

: // Since its revision this is now a viable support item. You can help in team fights by having more AP to increase your output on Reckoning, and you can decrease the heal of an enemy. To top it all off its built from another gold per five item, Kage's lucky pick!

Shurelya's Reverie: // This you will build at the end and keep as philosopher's stone for as long as possible in order to get some extra income.

: // Like the item above, you will build this at the end. If their is a Karthus on the opposing team finishing it sooner may be worthwhile for the shield it provides, but try to keep it as a Heart of Gold for the extra income.

: // This is a great, cheap item for the whole team. I highly suggest it in almost any support build.

Zeke's Herald: // Depending on if your team is more AD based or AP based this can be switched out with will of the ancient's to help your teams damage and sustain.

JUNGLER

: // This helps Kayle's attack speed, increasing the effectiveness of Righteous Fury. It will also help her with life steal and dps.

: // This is a good general item, especially for junglers. It allows you to kill monsters much quicker while gaining attack damage and life steal. On top of all this you get a free ward to place every three minutes.

: // This is for some extra attack speed and will increase your MR. As a jungler you have a fair amount of armor already, but your MR is pitiful until you attain this item.

: // I go for this item next cause it gives you more attack speed which is always beneficial for Righteous Fury's damage, and it gives you some much needed damage.

: // This item makes me a life stealing, spell vamping, damage dealing machine. If the game progresses this long and you attain this item no one will be able to combat you except for characters like Jax 1v1.

: // This allows you to finally kill those pesky tanks or supports that just don't seem to die. Goodbye oracles!

SOLO TOP

: // This helps Kayle's attack speed, increasing the effectiveness of Righteous Fury. It will also help her with life steal and dps.

: // Attack speed, damage, and an addition to your passive Holy Fervor. You will be able to take out massive amounts of armor in seconds this way for you and your AD carry to enjoy.

: // More attack speed is always welcomed with Kayle. Also, this helps you to perform critical strikes, so its worth the money.

: // This is where your damage really begins to accumulate. It is a great item to destroy opposing teams.

: // This has been recently added to my build because of the confusion and annoyance it causes for the other team. They can no longer focus anyone on the team besides the tanks... Sucks for them, but hilarious for us!

: // More attack speed and critical strike chance. You may substitute this for what you want, but this is what I usually take.

DOMINION

: // This allows for some early damage that is needed to win the first fight of the game. Also, it gives an extra 200HP to start, which is very valuable.

: // This helps Kayle's attack speed, increasing the effectiveness of Righteous Fury. It will also help her with life steal and dps.

: // I take this item to give me more attack speed as well as a bit more health. Also, it's good for team fights since the passive shoots out a chain of lightning dealing extra damage every fourth attack.

: // This item gives you some significant damage while also giving you life steal. It serves Kayle well.

Kitaess Bloodrazor: // As for my final item I take this to ensure I kill anyone with ease like cutting through butter.

Runes...

Runes are something I believe should be up to the individual player because tier three runes can be quite expensive and only make a small difference, though they do make a difference. In other words, go with what you've got. However, for those who do have the majority of the runes here's a brief explanation to my rune choice:

Marks - In most cases attack speed is the way to go with Kayle. Her splash will be much more effective and makes life a whole lot easier in the end both for killing and farming. However, for my support build I tend to go attack damage just so that I can add a bit more harass to help early game or to get the early kill.

Seals - Whether it be supporting, jungling, or solo top I highly suggest getting armor. This makes Kayle heavily armored in the beginning allowing for decreased damage from their AD carry as a support, monsters as a jungler, and in most cases solo top will be doing more AD damage than AP. However, if you do go solo top and know it is an AP character take MR seals.

Glyphs - I tend to go for mana regen due to early game mana problems, but for dominion this is not necessary since the fights are so short. For this reason go ability power glyphs so that your damage is increased.

Quintessence - These vary depending on if your support, jungler, solo top, or playing Dominion. As support go for the gold per ten seconds. This increases your earning since you will not be getting CS often. As a jungler I go for attack damage. This is to increase your clear speed and make early ganks much more deadly. As a solo top I plan on making Kayle into a strong killing machine at the end of the game, so go for attack speed, as it will benefit you greatly as the game progresses. For dominion I always plan on winning that first top fight. Therefore, go attack damage so that you can crush your enemies fast before they recognize what is happening. After that it should be a piece of cake.

Note that different runes work better under different circumstances. If you need a rune guide to start this may help, but if you know more about the game you should know to pick your runes based on your opponents and your play style.

Summary

Kayle has many different ways of being played and she can excel in multiple areas. It's mostly is up to the players style and preference to how she can be played. I would not suggest Kayle as mid or in place of an AD carry, but other than that anything is fair game with her. Try her out and see what you like. This guide is very general, but should give you an idea of the many ways to play her.

I play her mainly as Support and in Dominion, but I also find myself frequently playing her in the jungle. Top I have the least experience with, but I'm starting to really enjoy screwing with people with a double invulnerable AD carry trick. I have played all four ways with her several times and I have done well with her in all four ways. The most important thing to remember with her is react to how your opponents are playing.

NB: In ranked play you'll probably get yelled at for using her, but if your good with her you'll shut them up whatever way you play her. It's a satisfying feeling!

League of Legends is a team based, real time strategy game set in a mythical world of swords & magic where epic battles decide the fate of mystical nations. Game players take on the role of a Summoner who conjures and controls champions to fight for them at the Institute of War. During game play champions gain experience and items to enhance their skills and abilities. How players develop and play their champions can be the difference between a crushing defeat or a glorious victory!